Caswell Cooke Jr., warming up the crowd during John McCain’s visit to Rhode Island in February. “I would much rather do the things I enjoy than to be subject to constant criticism for public service,” says Cooke.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

WESTERLY — Town Council Vice President Caswell Cooke Jr., who last week announced he would run for a state House seat, is instead dropping out of local politics.

Cooke kicked off his campaign to unseat Rep. Peter L. Lewiss, D-Westerly, with a fundraiser May 1 featuring the 1960s British pop duo Chad and Jeremy, whom Cooke manages.

A story announcing the kickoff in the May 1 edition of the Westerly Sun drew about 75 comments in Talk Back, a section of the Sun’s Web site on which readers can comment on news stories anonymously.

Cooke said the postings included “nasty, rude and low remarks about me personally” and threatened to “drag my family” into “the politics of personal attack.

“I can stand criticism about the issues or my record on the council,” he said in an e-mail announcing that he would not challenge Lewiss. “That comes with the territory. I have dealt with that in my six years as an elected official.”

He said he would serve on the Town Council until his term expires, in November, but would not seek reelection.

Cooke is executive director of the Misquamicut Business Association, which sponsors family-oriented events in the summer.

“I was criticized for bringing free concerts to the beach,” he said. One blogger quipped that Cooke had turned Misquamicut from acid rock to flaccid rock, said Cooke, who is host of The Caswell Cooke Show, a public access cable television program in which he interviews politicians and celebrities, including rock stars of the past.

The 34-year-old producer, who emceed when Republican presidential candidate John McCain visited Rhode Island in February, will attend the Republican National Convention as a McCain delegate.

He said he can handle being called a baby whiner or characterized as a rich kid from Watch Hill, but what changed his mind about public service, he said, was when somebody posted that if he ran a campaign against Lewiss, who has held the House seat for 10 years, “my girlfriend and her family are fair game.”

Cooke had mentioned girl-friend Jill Keenan as influencing him to go green, or promote efforts to save energy and protect the environment. Keenan has two children, one of whom sat on the stage during McCain’s campaign stop in Warwick and had a personal conversation with the presidential candidate on the ride back to the airport.

Threatening to subject Keenan and her children to the meanness of local politics was too much.

“Geez,” Cooke said. “It’s a state rep position. Is it worth [harming] someone’s family? It isn’t.”

He said he had better things to do. “I would much rather do the things I enjoy than to be subject to constant criticism for public service,” he said.

Lewiss said he respects Cooke for offering to serve the people of Westerly “and I wish him the best in all his future endeavors.”

Lewiss said he didn’t know who had blogged against Cooke. “I didn’t even know the Westerly Sun had a blog.”

He said he has been the victim of similar attacks, “so I would certainly hope that my supporters would rise above the tactics that we see from certain shoreline individuals.”

Lewiss said he had asked for a copy of the comments, which were removed from the Web site early Wednesday evening.

David V. Trancheda, the Sun’s managing editor, said he and the others who moderate the Talk Back section of the Web site met Wednesday afternoon to discuss their discomfort with the kinds of comments being posted.

“The nastiness rose to an unacceptable level,” Trancheda said.

“The aim is to allow the community to have a conversation on the issues,” he said. “You hate to see it get nasty.

“We’re continuing to evaluate how we manage this particular feature,” Trancheda said. Cooke thanked his supporters and said their contributions would be returned or donated to a charity.

dnaylor@projo.com